Lutz Bachmann
Lutz Bachmann founded the group Patriotic Europeans Against Islamisation of the West (PEGIDA) in late 2014 in Germany.
History
Bachmann is reportedly a chef-turned-graphic designer. According to The Independent he admits to having spent two years in prison and has criminal convictions for drug offences[1] driving offences[2] and burglary[3].
A translation of a German press agency article of 16 December 2014 on the counterjihad website Gates of Vienna states that Lutz is aged 41. It also says he admitted, in December 2014, to having fled to South Africa 17 years before to try to escape a three year sentence for a string of 16 burglaries in Dresden. But he was deported to Germany after his true name and passport came to light.[4]
Lutz 'insists he is not a racist'[1] and is reported to have said, as evidence of this:
- I had a Turkish best man, and I have a lot of Muslim friends.[4].
At least one journalist has noted the irony of his own criminal record with his accusation that immigrants contribute to crime in Germany.[2]
Starting PEGIDA
According to Der Spiegel, Lutz claims that PEGIDA grew out of a Facebook group which he started after he witnessed a rally in Dresden by supporters of the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) which opposes the Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq. He decided to start a group primarily to oppose arms shipments to the PKK.[3]
Quitting PEGIDA
Bachmann stepped down as leader of the group after a photograph of him posing as Adolf Hitler was published by a local German newspaper Dresden Morgenpost and subsequently on the front page of the national Bild. In addition, state prosecutors announced they had launched an investigation him, after it was revealed that he has described immigrants as 'cattle, 'scumbags' and 'trash' in Facebook posts from September 2014.[5].
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lizzie Dearden, Germany anti-Islam protests: 17,000 march on Dresden against 'Islamification of the West', The Independent, 23 December 2014, accessed 5 Jan 2015
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Alison Smale, In German City Rich With History and Tragedy, Tide Rises Against Immigration, New York Times, 7 December 2014, accessed 6 January 2015
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 The End of Tolerance? Anti-Muslim Movement Rattles Germany, Spiegel Online International, 21 December 2014, accessed 5 January 2015
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Finding PEGIDA, Gates of Vienna, 27 December 2014, accessed 5 January 2015
- ↑ Germany’s Pegida leader steps down over Adolf Hitler photo, Guardian, 21 January 2015
